Lover Eternal (Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 2)

Never have I been so happy to dislike a book.

I'm not sure how it's possible, but the writing in the second book of this series is actually worse than the first book.

1) It's not just the Black Dagger Brotherhood vampires who have stupid names (Rhage, Zsadist, Dhestroyer, Vishous, Phury, etc), ALL vampires do. Or all of the male ones. In this book we're introduced to Thorment and Thorture. These god awful names still are not explained. Worse yet, dialogue goes like this:

Vampire, "Hi! I'm Thorment!"
Human, "Hi Thorment!"

If I were writing, I'd shoot myself before using those names have the human say "Hi Torment!" and later learn that the name is spelled differently and then change the spelling in the dialogue. If someone introduced themselves to you as "Johnny", would you assume it's spelled Johnny or know it's really Zhonny?

1a) There's a main character vampire named Bella. Making me think of Twilight is NOT a good thing, author.

2) For lord knows what reason, the vampires use only males/females when speaking of men/women.

Vampire, speaking to human. "I've been a single male for a long time, I'm looking for that special female."
Human, never once even wondering at the use of male/female, "Hope you find her soon!"

Even when the human is the POV character, she never wonders why the heck this guy is using male/female. Is it just me? I would certainly take notice of someone called me a "female". I'd have at least a change of expression over it and be questioning it in my thoughts, even if I didn't out loud.

3) The author seems to not know how time works. Paraphrasing the scene I just read:

Woman arrives at TGI Fridays.
Male vampire arrives.
Woman, "Hello."
Waitress arrives, places menus down for them, leaves.
Male, "Hello."
Waitress returns, takes their orders.
Woman, "How was work today?"
Waitress returns with their meals.
Male, "Good, yours?"
Waitress returns, takes their now empty plates...

The waitress had a major action in the serving process for each line of dialogue! Just a casual line, not a Shakespearean speech.

4) The author has a fixation on brand names. Anywhere a brand name can be used, she uses them. Clothing brands especially, followed closely by cars and drinks. It's really distracting.

5) Thus far (about a quarter into the book) things are well into sexual assault territory, and it's not hot at all. All of the male vampires are "wide as a doorway" (all muscle), 6'5" or taller, and sexual gods. The main vampire character forced an unwilling human woman to kiss him and is outright stalking her (she's his love interest, I'm certain they'll be a happy couple by the end of the book). While I feel for the vampire's problems and issues, I can't get behind sexual assault.

I haven't given up on the book yet, but if I make it to the end of it, I'll be surprised. For all of the author's many, many issues, she can still somehow make me care about the characters, so that's what's keeping me from giving up on it right now.

Government shutdown, movies, Pacific Rim, Agents of SHIELD, books

In the continuing list of unexpected things halted by the US government shutdown: Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch TV series. The ships are stuck in dock because quotas are set by furloughed workers. The ship captains are paying $1,000 per day (for insurance, food, etc) while waiting for this to end. The show isn't being filmed and one of the captains went to Washington to testify about how the shutdown is harming the industry.

In general movie news: For a long time I thought I wasn't going to movies because they were too expensive. Which they are, but then I discovered a cheap theater nearby, and I still didn't go. A movie I really wanted to see (Pacific Rim) was played there and I still didn't go.

Today I watched it in the comfort of my home, and realized I'm just not a going-to-the-movies person. I really, really liked Pacific Rim, but man I can't sit and watch something for two hours straight. I got up multiple times to do other things, including a hot shower in the middle of it (I was freezing!) and a load of laundry. The idea of seeing a movie in the theater, where you'll miss part of it (and likely disturb everyone around you) if you have to get up to go to the bathroom... I'm just happier at home where I can pause it at will. I think it would have been an amazing movie on a giant screen, but I enjoyed it on the small one, too.

One of the reasons I wanted to see it was that people said it was really slashy. I didn't really see that at all. The framework of the story could be used for it (and has, there's a fun Pacific Rim/Avengers fic out there). But the story as-is? Maybe the scientist dudes, at the very most.

And speaking of science dudes, I hate to say this, but I'm getting bored with Agents of SHIELD. Oh I like Coulson, but I wish the rest of the team would get sucked out of the plane. I hate Skye more every time I see her (and she's in every damned scene). I hate the male lead character whatever the hell his name is. The two science geeks are meh. The pilot lady seems fine, but she doesn't have that much of a personality yet. It's sad because I really, really want to like the show. What's sadder: I hear the ratings aren't that good. I don't want it to be canceled! Just fixed!

And lastly, I got offered an interesting sounding book to review, so I'm going to give up on stupid vampire name book for a while. (Or forever. I rarely get back to a book if I move on to something else.) Mind Bond. In it a very few people become "Interspecies Telepaths" and bond with an animal. Sounds like just the kind of story I'd like.